Download or read book The Ethical Work of Literature in a Post Humanist World written by Benice Spark and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-11 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the contention that, in an era where the relevance of the literary novel is compromised, the novel remains an important means of exploring and interrogating societies and culture. It answers the question of what we lose with the loss of the novel as an important public space for discourse. It does so through readings of a selection of Don DeLillo’s later novels, together with the political philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Alain Badiou in their engagement with contemporary history. DeLillo explores in his fiction the profound cultural and socio-political changes and historical events which affect people. His literary interest is the status of the individual in changing times. On a personal level, his concern is the writer in an epoch where the novel is challenged by crises of diminished relevance in a techno-media culture and the emergence of radical forms of censorship that target literature and its producers. This book will appeal to students of DeLillo’s novels, researchers in the disciplines of literature, philosophy, and contemporary history, and students of Badiou and Arendt. Arendt’s political theories are currently undergoing a renaissance of interest, given current global politics.
Download or read book Posthumanism written by Pramod K. Nayar and published by Polity. This book was released on 2014 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book examines the rise of posthumanism as both a material condition and a developing philosophical-ethical project in the age of cloning, gene engineering, organ transplants and implants. Nayar first maps the political and philosophical critiques of traditional humanism, revealing its exclusionary and ‘speciesist’ politics that position the human as a distinctive and dominant life form. He then contextualizes the posthumanist vision which, drawing upon biomedical, engineering and techno-scientific studies, concludes that human consciousness is shaped by its co-evolution with other life forms, and our human form inescapably influenced by tools and technology. Finally the book explores posthumanism’s roots in disability studies, animal studies and bioethics to underscore the constructed nature of ‘normalcy’ in bodies, and the singularity of species and life itself. As this book powerfully demonstrates, posthumanism marks a radical reassessment of the human as constituted by symbiosis, assimilation, difference and dependence upon and with other species. Mapping the terrain of these far-reaching debates, Posthumanism will be an invaluable companion to students of cultural studies and modern and contemporary literature.
Download or read book The Posthuman written by Rosi Braidotti and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Posthuman offers both an introduction and major contribution to contemporary debates on the posthuman. Digital 'second life', genetically modified food, advanced prosthetics, robotics and reproductive technologies are familiar facets of our globally linked and technologically mediated societies. This has blurred the traditional distinction between the human and its others, exposing the non-naturalistic structure of the human. The Posthuman starts by exploring the extent to which a post-humanist move displaces the traditional humanistic unity of the subject. Rather than perceiving this situation as a loss of cognitive and moral self-mastery, Braidotti argues that the posthuman helps us make sense of our flexible and multiple identities. Braidotti then analyzes the escalating effects of post-anthropocentric thought, which encompass not only other species, but also the sustainability of our planet as a whole. Because contemporary market economies profit from the control and commodification of all that lives, they result in hybridization, erasing categorical distinctions between the human and other species, seeds, plants, animals and bacteria. These dislocations induced by globalized cultures and economies enable a critique of anthropocentrism, but how reliable are they as indicators of a sustainable future? The Posthuman concludes by considering the implications of these shifts for the institutional practice of the humanities. Braidotti outlines new forms of cosmopolitan neo-humanism that emerge from the spectrum of post-colonial and race studies, as well as gender analysis and environmentalism. The challenge of the posthuman condition consists in seizing the opportunities for new social bonding and community building, while pursuing sustainability and empowerment.
Download or read book What is Posthumanism written by Cary Wolfe and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to think beyond humanism? Is it possible to craft a mode of philosophy, ethics, and interpretation that rejects the classic humanist divisions of self and other, mind and body, society and nature, human and animal, organic and technological? Can a new kind of humanities-posthumanities-respond to the redefinition of humanity's place in the world by both the technological and the biological or "green" continuum in which the "human" is but one life form among many? Exploring how both critical thought along with cultural practice have reacted to this radical repositioning, Cary Wolfe-one of the founding figures in the field of animal studies and posthumanist theory-ranges across bioethics, cognitive science, animal ethics, gender, and disability to develop a theoretical and philosophical approach responsive to our changing understanding of ourselves and our world. Then, in performing posthumanist readings of such diverse works as Temple Grandin's writings, Wallace Stevens's poetry, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, the architecture of Diller+Scofidio, and David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, he shows how this philosophical sensibility can transform art and culture. For Wolfe, a vibrant, rigorous posthumanism is vital for addressing questions of ethics and justice, language and trans-species communication, social systems and their inclusions and exclusions, and the intellectual aspirations of interdisciplinarity. In What Is Posthumanism? he carefully distinguishes posthumanism from transhumanism (the biotechnological enhancement of human beings) and narrow definitions of the posthuman as the hoped-for transcendence of materiality. In doing so, Wolfe reveals that it is humanism, not the human in all its embodied and prosthetic complexity, that is left behind in posthumanist thought.
Download or read book Posthumanism written by Neil Badmington and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2000-09-11 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is posthumanism and why does it matter? This reader offers an introduction to the ways in which humanism's belief in the natural supremacy of the Family of Man has been called into question at different moments and from different theoretical positions. What is the relationship between posthumanism and technology? Can posthumanism have a politics - post-colonial or feminist? Are postmodernism and poststructuralism posthumanist? What happens when critical theory meets Hollywood cinema? What links posthumanism to science fiction? Posthumanism addresses these and other questions in an attempt to come to terms with one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary society.
Download or read book Posthuman Knowledge written by Rosi Braidotti and published by Polity. This book was released on 2019-08-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of what defines the human, and of what is human about the humanities, have been shaken up by the radical critiques of humanism and the displacement of anthropomorphism that have gained currency in recent years, propelled in part by rapid advances in our knowledge of living systems and of their genetic and algorithmic codes coupled with the global expansion of a knowledge-intensive capitalism. In Posthuman Knowledge, Rosi Braidotti takes a closer look at the impact of these developments on three major areas: the constitution of our subjectivity, the general production of knowledge and the practice of the academic humanities. Drawing on feminist, postcolonial and anti-racist theory, she argues that the human was never a neutral category but one always linked to power and privilege. Hence we must move beyond the old dualities in which Man defined himself, beyond the sexualized and racialized others that were excluded from humanity. Posthuman knowledge, as Braidotti understands it, is not so much an alternative form of knowledge as a critical call: a call to build a multi-layered and multi-directional project that displaces anthropocentrism while pursuing the analysis of the discriminatory and violent aspects of human activity and interaction wherever they occur. Situated between the exhilaration of scientific and technological advances on the one hand and the threat of climate change devastation on the other, the posthuman convergence encourages us to think hard and creatively about what we are in the process of becoming.
Download or read book Reconfiguring Human Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture written by Sanna Karkulehto and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time has come for human cultures to seriously think, to severely conceptualize, and to earnestly fabulate about all the nonhuman critters we share our world with, and to consider how to strive for more ethical cohabitation. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture tackles this severe matter within the framework of literary and cultural studies. The emphasis of the inquiry is on the various ways actual and fictional nonhumans are reconfigured in contemporary culture - although, as long as the domain of nonhumanity is carved in the negative space of humanity, addressing these issues will inevitably clamor for the reconfiguration of the human as well.
Download or read book Posthuman Life written by David Roden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We imagine posthumans as humans made superhumanly intelligent or resilient by future advances in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. Many argue that these enhanced people might live better lives; others fear that tinkering with our nature will undermine our sense of our own humanity. Whoever is right, it is assumed that our technological successor will be an upgraded or degraded version of us: Human 2.0. Posthuman Life argues that the enhancement debate projects a human face onto an empty screen. We do not know what will happen and, not being posthuman, cannot anticipate how posthumans will assess the world. If a posthuman future will not necessarily be informed by our kind of subjectivity or morality the limits of our current knowledge must inform any ethical or political assessment of that future. Posthuman Life develops a critical metaphysics of posthuman succession and argues that only a truly speculative posthumanism can support an ethics that meets the challenge of the transformative potential of technology.
Download or read book Post Anthropocentric Social Work written by Vivienne Bozalek and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to trouble taken-for-granted assumptions of anthropocentrism and humanism in social work - those which perpetuate human privilege and human exceptionalism. The edited collection provides a different imaginary for social work by introducing ways of thinking otherwise that challenge human exceptionalism. Social work is at heart a liberal humanist project informed by a strong human rights framework. This edited collection draws on the literature on affect, feminist new materialism and critical posthumanism to critique the liberal framework, which includes human rights. Disrupting the anthropocentrism in social work which positions humans as an elite species at the centre of world history, this book develops an ethical sensibility that values entanglements of humans, non-human life and the natural environment. The book provides new insights into environmental destruction, human-animal relations, gender inequality and male dominance, as well as indigenous and settler/colonial issues and critical and green social work. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, community development, social policy and development studies more broadly.
Download or read book Classical Literature and Posthumanism written by Giulia Maria Chesi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of the posthuman, of what it means to be or to cease to be human, is emerging as a shared point of debate at large in the natural and social sciences and the humanities. This volume asks what classical learning can bring to the table of posthuman studies, assembling chapters that explore how exactly the human self of Greek and Latin literature understands its own relation to animals, monsters, objects, cyborgs and robotic devices. With its widely diverse habitat of heterogeneous bodies, minds, and selves, classical literature again and again blurs the boundaries between the human and the non-human; not to equate and confound the human with its other, but playfully to highlight difference and hybridity, as an invitation to appraise the animal, monstrous or mechanical/machinic parts lodged within humans. This comprehensive collection unites contributors from across the globe, each delving into a different classical text or narrative and its configuration of human subjectivity-how human selves relate to other entities around them. For students and scholars of classical literature and the posthuman, this book is a first point of reference.
Download or read book Ghost Android Animal written by Tony M. Vinci and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghost, Android, Animal challenges the notion that trauma literature functions as a healing agent for victims of severe pain and loss by bringing trauma studies into the orbit of posthumanist thought. Investigating how literary representations of ghosts, androids, and animals engage traumatic experience, this book revisits canonical texts by William Faulkner and Toni Morrison and aligns them with experimental and popular texts by Shirley Jackson, Philip K. Dick, and Clive Barker. In establishing this textual field, the book reveals how depictions of non-human agents invite readers to cross subjective and cultural thresholds and interact with the "impossible" pain of others. Ultimately, this study asks us to consider new practices for reading trauma literature that enlarges our conceptions of the human and the real.
Download or read book Audiovisual Posthumanism written by Evi D. Sampanikou and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with the challenges posthumanism meets as a successor to postmodernism in the field of artistic, literary and aesthetic expression. It also explores the ways social sciences and humanities are affected by posthumanism, and it asks how posthumanism can be an expansion of humanism in the contemporary world, rather than a transcendence of humanism. The chapters’ authors come from different countries, cultural backgrounds and study areas to present a varied perspective on posthumanism.
Download or read book Organization Studies and Posthumanism written by François-Xavier de Vaujany and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-05 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims at exploring the reception of critical posthumanist conversations in the context of Management and Organization Studies. It constitutes an invitation to de-center the human subject and thus an invitation to the ongoing deconstruction of humanism. The project is not to deny humans but to position them in relation to other nonhumans, more-than-humans, the non-living world, and all the “missing masses” from organizational inquiry. What is under critique is humanism’s anthropocentrism, essentialism, exceptionalism, and speciesism in the context of the Anthropocene and the contemporary crisis the world experiences. From climate change to the loss of sense at work, to the new geopolitical crisis, to the unknown effects of the diffusion of AI, all these powerful forces have implications for organizations and organizing. A re-imagination of concepts, theories, and methods is needed in organization studies to cope with the challenge of a more-than-human world.
Download or read book Humanity in the Age of AI written by Mehrdad Qorbani and published by Bloomsberry. This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Humanity in the Age of How to Thrive in a Post-Human World," readers embark on a profound journey into the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and its intricate relationship with human evolution. This book navigates the complex landscape where technology and humanity converge, offering a visionary exploration of how AI is reshaping our world and the way we exist within it. The book delves into a wide array of themes, from the ethical implications of AI to the transformation of the global job market, healthcare, and even personal relationships. It presents a future where AI not only enhances efficiency but also challenges the very essence of what it means to be human. Key features: An in-depth analysis of the potential future scenarios in an AI-centric world, exploring both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.Insightful discussions on the intersection of AI with critical areas of human life, including education, healthcare, governance, and the environment. An exploration of the ethical, philosophical, and practical implications of living alongside advanced AI systems.Strategies and guidance on adapting to a world where AI plays a central role in every aspect of human existence. Contributions from leading thinkers, experts, and visionaries in the field of AI and human evolution.This book is not just a theoretical exploration but also a practical guide, offering readers strategies to navigate and thrive in a world increasingly dominated by AI. It challenges readers to consider the broader implications of these advancements on our way of life, our planet, and our future. Ideal for enthusiasts of technology, AI, futurism, and anyone curious about the future of human society, "Humanity in the Age of AI" serves as a crucial roadmap for understanding and preparing for a world where AI reshapes our existence. Join the journey to explore the possibilities, challenges, and profound changes that AI brings to the very fabric of human life.Book Review Review: "Humanity in the Age of How to Thrive in a Post-Human World" is a groundbreaking exploration of the future we are rapidly heading towards – a future deeply intertwined with artificial intelligence. This book is a masterful blend of insightful analysis, futuristic speculation, and practical advice, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the trajectory of our technologically infused future. The author delves into a wide array of thought-provoking themes, such as the ethical dilemmas posed by AI, the transformation of job markets, and the evolving nature of human relationships in the age of AI. The book stands out for its balanced approach, offering both optimistic views of AI’s potential to solve some of our greatest challenges and cautious tales of the risks and ethical quandaries we face as AI becomes more ingrained in our lives. One of the book's strengths is its ability to make complex AI concepts accessible to a broad audience. Whether you're a tech expert or a curious novice, the author's clear and engaging writing style makes it easy to understand and appreciate the nuances of AI and its impact on various aspects of human existence. The futuristic scenarios painted in the book are both fascinating and plausible, grounded in current AI advancements. These scenarios not only serve as a window into what the future might hold but also as a catalyst for readers to think about how we can prepare for and shape this future. Moreover, the book doesn't shy away from the tough questions.
Download or read book New Approaches to the Twenty First Century Anglophone Novel written by Sibylle Baumbach and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the complex ways in which the novel offers a vibrant arena for critically engaging with our contemporary world and scrutinises the genre's political, ethical, and aesthetic value. Far-reaching cultural, political, and technological changes during the past two decades have created new contexts for the novel, which have yet to be accounted for in literary studies. Addressing the need for fresh transdisciplinary approaches that explore these developments, the book focuses on the multifaceted responses of the novel to key global challenges, including migration and cosmopolitanism, posthumanism and ecosickness, human and animal rights, affect and biopolitics, human cognition and anxieties of inattention, and the transculturality of terror. By doing so, it testifies to the ongoing cultural relevance of the genre. Lastly, it examines a range of 21st-century Anglophone novels to encourage new critical discourses in literary studies.
Download or read book Thinking Italian Animals written by D. Amberson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bracing volume collects work on Italian writers and filmmakers that engage with nonhuman animal subjectivity. These contributions address 3 major strands of philosophical thought: perceived borders between man and animals, historical and fictional crises, and human entanglement with the nonhuman and material world.
Download or read book Posthumanist Shakespeares written by S. Herbrechter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shakespeare scholars and cultural theorists critically investigate the relationship between early modern culture and contemporary political and technological changes concerning the idea of the 'human.' The volume covers the tragedies King Lear and Hamlet in particular, but also provides posthumanist readings of other Shakespearean plays.
